Tesla Inc. is plotting a potential lithium refinery on the gulf coast of Texas, a move that would bolster the company’s battery-production efforts and further expand its footprint in the state.
The electric-car maker has told officials that it’s considering constructing a “battery-grade lithium hydroxide refining facility,” in Nueces County, according to a newly public application for tax breaks filed with the Texas Comptroller’s Office. Tesla pitched it as “the first of its kind in North America.”
If built, Tesla told the state that the facility would process the raw ore material into a state suitable for battery production. The resulting lithium hydroxide it creates would be “packaged and shipped by truck and rail to various Tesla battery manufacturing sites supporting the necessary supply chain for large-scale and electric vehicle batteries.”
